On September 22, 1999, I got my first glimpse of this face.
This is the referral picture (the only picture, back then) of my daughter Sarah, the former Mao Xiao Ge from Maoming, Guangdong, PRC.
We had no idea when it was taken, but we guess it was some time in April 1999, when her paperwork was being prepared to be sent to the CCAA. If our guess is right, she would have been six months old in this photograph.
This is the picture I looked at for 11 eleven weeks, through two trip reschedules. We initially were to leave for China on November 9th. Then it was changed to November 17th. Then we were told we should be in Beijing the week after Thanksgiving.
When we landed in Beijing, seven years ago today, on December 1st, 1999 our wonderful guide and soon-to-be friend Tu met us at the brand-new Beijing airport. After helping John retrieve the baby stroller we left in the luggage area of the airport, we took a quiet ride to the hotel.
After checking in at the Jinglun, we proceded to the tour desk and booked our tours for the next couple of days. During this time, Tu gave us this picture:
It was an updated picture of Sarah, taken at the brand new addition of the Maoming SWI. Now this was the face I stared at for the the next five days as we got acclimated to life on the other side of the world. This was the face of my baby, taken within the past month — probably on or very near her first birthday.
I couldn’t believe that Tu would have taken the time to get an updated photo for us — all of us in our travel group of seven families. Especially since our babies were from three different orphanages. This was a miracle, back in the day. I treasured that photo, and still do.